Many consumers of retail stores order products over the internet. Some products that are commonly ordered over the internet may include, for example, household items (e.g., cleaning supplies, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.), office supplies (e.g., paper, ink, writing instruments), prescription and over-the-counter medication, and dietary supplements just to name a few. Typically, consumers order a product on a website operated by a retail provider (e.g., Walmart/Sams Club) by browsing for the product of interest on the retail provider's website, adding the product of interest to a virtual shopping cart on the retail provider's website, then proceeding to checkout by providing a payment method (e.g., credit card information) to purchase the product in the shopping cart. When products ordered by the consumers using such website-based product ordering systems are determined to be out of stock, the retail providers typically deliver to the consumers substitute products chosen by the retail provider.
One disadvantage of such systems is that generally, consumers know which products they like and expect to receive the exact product they ordered, and are often not happy when they are surprised with a different product. Another disadvantage is that the consumers may choose to return the substitute product to the retail providers, forcing the retail provider to incur the transportation cost of the substitute products back to the facility of the retail providers. Other disadvantages are that the retail providers may not only suffer a loss of sale, but may also lose its customers, who may become unhappy with the retail provider's delivery of a substitute product, and who may turn to another retail provider who has the customers' desired product in stock. Such disadvantages negatively affect the retail providers' profits by increasing shipping costs and reducing total number of sales, and negatively affect the consumers' satisfaction with the retail providers, potentially leading to a loss of customers for the retail providers.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.